Foreclosures Hit 10-Year Low, Despite April Uptick

Black Knight Financial Services, a provider of integrated technology, data, and analytics solutions, released its First Look at April’s mortgage performance Wednesday. The total national loan delinquency rate (loans 30 or more days past due, but not in foreclosure), spiked 13 percent from March putting a little over 2 million properties past due, however Black Knight said there is no need for alarm. The rise is primarily due to the calendar.

Due to the month ending on a Sunday, servicers were unable to process payments the last two days of the month. Typically, for this reason, all months ending on a Sunday cause a spike in delinquencies. Additionally, March is known to be the calendar year low for mortgage delinquencies, triggering a rise coming into April.

Past due mortgage accounts went up by roughly 241,000 from March, however, 227,000 of those were early stage delinquencies meaning they were 30 days past due. Based on previous months that follow a Sunday ending, May should be a near, but likely not complete, reversal in April’s delinquencies.

Active foreclosures are continuing to fall, hitting a 10-year low of 433,000. Similarly, at 52,800, monthly foreclosure stops were the fewest since January 2005. Prepay speeds, typically a good indicator of refinance activity, fell by 11 percent from March.

Properties 90 days or more past due, but not in foreclosure were down 8,000 at 581,000, properties in foreclosure pre-sale inventory were down 15,000 to 433,000, and properties 30 days past due or in foreclosure were up 227,000 at 2.5 million.

Similar to the March report, by state, Mississippi continues to hold the highest number of delinquent loans at 3.16 percent being over 90 days. Mississippi is followed by Louisiana, Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee.

A more detailed review of this data will be available June 5, 2017 in Black Knight’s Mortgage Monitor Report. This report will include an analysis of data supplemented by detailed charts and graphs that reflect trends and point-in-time observations.

Brianna Gilpin, Online Editor for MReport and DS News, is a graduate of Texas A&M University where she received her B.A. in Telecommunication Media Studies. Gilpin previously worked at Hearst Media, one of the nation's leading diversified media and information services companies. To contact Gilpin, email [email protected]